According to NASA, the mission here “was a test of a new multi-canister ejection system for deploying vapors in ionosphere or aurora sounding rocket missions.”

“During the 8-minute flight, 10 canisters about the size of a soft drink can were ejected in space, 6 to 12 miles away from the 670-pound main payload.” – NASA

That’s where the psychedelic colors came from – roughly five minutes after launch, the canisters were ejected and out came the multicolored artificial clouds, or vapor tracers, briefly lighting up the early morning sky. As NASA states, they use these to “allow scientists on the ground to visually track particle motions in space.” The colorful vapors could be seen from New York to North Carolina.